A Tricky Reunion on the Ice for North and South Korean Hockey

Thousands of spectators waved miniature white flags showing a unified Korean Peninsula as women’s hockey teams from North and South Korea faced off at the Gangneung Hockey Centre, one of the venues of the 2018 Winter Olympics next month in South Korea.

Only days before, North Korea had tested a ballistic missile over the Sea of Japan, escalating nuclear tensions. But for a few hours at this tournament in April, through a sport only marginally popular in South Korea, dreams of unification were stirred.

South Korea won, 3-0, yet spectators were teary-eyed as the two teams shook hands and posed for pictures after the game. South Korean news media reported that North Korean players also cried afterward, although reporters were not able to interview them to determine if they were tears of joy or anguish, or both.

Park Jong-ah, the South Korean forward and team captain, told reporters that she held back from approaching the North Koreans because they seemed upset. “I wanted to put my arm around their shoulders, but I just couldn’t do that,” she said. “I’ll try to do that the next time we meet.”

So far, the only North Korean athletes to qualify for the Pyeongchang Games are a pairs figureskating team but it is not clear if they will be among North Korea’s delegation, which would number about 550 people and may also include a pop orchestra and supporters.

The move to field a joint hockey team, supported by President Moon Jae-in of South Korea but met with some criticism by the public, has created uncertainty for the South Korean team, which has trained as a core group over the last four years and already is something of a hybrid.

To fill out its roster and compete at the highest level, the Korean Ice Hockey Association recruited a handful of women’s hockey players of Korean heritage from the United States and Canada. With their counterparts from South Korea, the women have established a familial bond while pushing to earn a reputation as a strong team, not just as one gifted a berth into their first Olympic appearance as the host nation.

Among the greatest unknown is who from the North will be joining their team.

Sarah Murray, the Canadian-born coach of the South Korean team, fielded those questions as she arrived in South Korea on Tuesday, facing a horde of reporters with a sudden, elevated interest in women’s hockey and North Korean players.

She mentioned a defender, whom she remembered as being a workhorse during the April game (it was Won Chol-sun, but she only knew her number).

“When we played against them, she was blocking shots with her face,” Murray told reporters. “She’s very intense.”

Marissa Brandt, who was born in Korea before being adopted by an American family and growing up in Minnesota, said the North and South Korean players hardly got to know one another.

“We took pictures with them. They didn’t say much; we didn’t really either,” she said. “But overall it was a cool experience.”

Even for the South Korean-born players, the North Korean team largely remains a mystery.

Lee Min-ji, a South Korea forward, told some North American teammates last week that North Korea used to be stronger in women’s hockey, because Kim Jong-il, the father of the current North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, was a big fan of the sport. But that was about all she knew.

Murray and her staff have worked for years to carefully develop the South Korean team from a unit that regularly lost games by 20 or more goals, to one that eventually won a second-division world championship tournament in April. Now, with just over three weeks before the team’s first game in the Olympics, against Switzerland on Feb. 10, Murray and the players must figure out how to incorporate new teammates into their style of play, without disrupting chemistry.

Although the Koreas are hoping the I.O.C. approves the measure with the caveat that no South Koreans would have to be cut from the team, some original members of the roster would most likely not dress for every game to make room for North Korean players.

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Women's ice hockey players from South Korea (white) and North Korea (red) pose for a picture with South Korean Olympic officials after a tournament in April. South Korea won, 3-0, but the match stirred dreams of reconciliation between the nations.CreditJung Yeon-Je/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Murray has told the South Korean news media that, regardless of pressure from South Korean officials, any new players would have to earn their ice time.

North Korean women’s hockey teams were among those who regularly dominated the early South Korea women’s national teams. But in recent years, under Murray, the daughter of the former N.H.L. coach Andy Murray, South Korea has surpassed them in skill.

Now, those players may suddenly be in the position of being not only teachers and athletes, but also diplomats, training alongside citizens of North Korea.

Although South Korean leaders in favor of the move have said a unified team would promote peace in the Olympic spirit, many South Koreans, although ultimately in favor of reunification, remain critical of the motives for the women’s hockey decision.

On Naver, the popular South Korean news site, thousands of commenters overwhelmingly supported the South Korean players and lashed out at the government interference. More than 22,000 people have signed an online petition against a unified team, arguing that the efforts of the South Korean players should not be sacrificed for political gestures.

Yet others welcomed the decision.

Laurent Dupont, the managing director of Peace and Sport, a global initiative based in Monaco that helped organize the April game, said in a phone interview on Wednesday that it took three to four months to arrange it.

“We are quite proud to see what we have begun one year ago is becoming a reality during the Olympic Games,” Mr. Dupont said. “It’s great news that the two teams will compete together and can show to the entire world that sport can be a showcase for peace.”

For the North Koreans, he added, “it was important to show that sport can give hope. There were no political issues, no religious issues. Sport is something universal.”

The turn of events recall a popular South Korean movie, “Take Off 2,” released in 2016, depicting a ragtag women’s ice hockey team trying to make it big on an international stage.

It was loosely based on the story of Hwangbo Young, who escaped North Korea with her family to China before settling in South Korea and joining their women’s hockey team.

In a climactic scene, players from both teams cry before going their separate ways. But the film ends on a more hopeful note, with sisters on the opposing North and South Korean teams sharing a smile before the two countries face off.

Jeré Longman contributed reporting from Philadelphia.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Geopolitics Take a Breather as North and South Unite on Ice. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe